How to Properly Smoke a Cigar
- Thread starter The Boys
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Cigars Have Gluten!
Started by heliotrope42, Nov 17 2010 08:43 AM
Posted <abbr class="published" itemprop="commentTime" title="2010-11-17T16:43:05+00:00" style="border: 0px;">17 November 2010 - 08:43 AM</abbr>
I've been eating gluten-free since my celiac diagnosis in the spring of 2003.
I started flirting with a cigar habit earlier this year. Simultaneously I started worrying about needing to go to the doctor for the chronic tightness in my left abdomen. It felt like I had a growth in there that was causing blockage. It's funny how I couldn't put two and two together! It was the same symptom, for me, as from gluten exposure. Often I would feel the tightness shortly after I lit up a cigar, and I wondered if the nicotine somehow had caused my intestines to spaz out.
In my reading about cigars, I found out that they brush on a paste, often containing flour, to the outer leaves as they roll the cigar. I emailed a cigar expert on allexperts.com, and he replied that as far as he knew ALL major cigar manufacturers use a paste that contains gluten.
I'm pretty sure he was talking about the fancier type of cigar that has an actual tobacco leaf rolled around the outside, not Swisher Sweets and the like that use a brown tobacco paper. But who knows about those cheaper cigars, either.
So I have no problem resisting croissants and pizza, but I'm still finishing my last cigar. I know I can't buy any more now that my denial has been shattered, and I'm not about to start smoking cigarettes, so I'm going to have to go through three days of quiet hell to kick this nicotine addiction. Sigh. I know, I know...
If there are any dedicated cigar smokers here who are celiac, I think the only solution is to roll your own. Perfectly acceptable cigar glue can be made from pectin or guar gum. I found a website that sells whole leaf tobacco for rolling. I'm not going to go down that road (I hope), because I don't want to make that type of formal commitment to this bad habit.
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/74918-cigars-have-gluten/
Started by heliotrope42, Nov 17 2010 08:43 AM
I've been eating gluten-free since my celiac diagnosis in the spring of 2003.
I started flirting with a cigar habit earlier this year. Simultaneously I started worrying about needing to go to the doctor for the chronic tightness in my left abdomen. It felt like I had a growth in there that was causing blockage. It's funny how I couldn't put two and two together! It was the same symptom, for me, as from gluten exposure. Often I would feel the tightness shortly after I lit up a cigar, and I wondered if the nicotine somehow had caused my intestines to spaz out.
In my reading about cigars, I found out that they brush on a paste, often containing flour, to the outer leaves as they roll the cigar. I emailed a cigar expert on allexperts.com, and he replied that as far as he knew ALL major cigar manufacturers use a paste that contains gluten.
I'm pretty sure he was talking about the fancier type of cigar that has an actual tobacco leaf rolled around the outside, not Swisher Sweets and the like that use a brown tobacco paper. But who knows about those cheaper cigars, either.
So I have no problem resisting croissants and pizza, but I'm still finishing my last cigar. I know I can't buy any more now that my denial has been shattered, and I'm not about to start smoking cigarettes, so I'm going to have to go through three days of quiet hell to kick this nicotine addiction. Sigh. I know, I know...
If there are any dedicated cigar smokers here who are celiac, I think the only solution is to roll your own. Perfectly acceptable cigar glue can be made from pectin or guar gum. I found a website that sells whole leaf tobacco for rolling. I'm not going to go down that road (I hope), because I don't want to make that type of formal commitment to this bad habit.
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/74918-cigars-have-gluten/
